From: TSS()Subject: May 2007 Update on Feed Enforcement Activities to Limit the Spread of BSEDate: May 21, 2007 at 1:59 pm PST

greetings,

WOW, some feed ban. you would have thought by now the infamous August 4, 1997 mad cow feed ban would have taken place by now. from the mad cow feed ban warning letter just several months ago, where 10,000,000 LBS of banned material went out into commerce to be fed out again, I cannot imagine how much more tainted product is out there from the looks of this latest report. ...terry

CVM UpdateMay 18, 2007

May 2007 Update on Feed Enforcement Activities to Limit the Spread of BSE

To help prevent the establishment and amplification of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) through feed in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) implemented a final rule that prohibits the use of most mammalian protein in feeds for ruminant animals. This rule, Title 21 Part 589.2000 of the Code of Federal Regulations, here called the Ruminant Feed Ban, became effective on August 4, 1997.

The following is an update on FDA enforcement activities regarding the ruminant feed ban. FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has assembled data from the inspections that have been conducted AND whose final inspection report has been recorded in the FDA's inspection database as of May 12, 2007. As of May 12, 2007, FDA had received over 53,000 inspection reports. The majority of these inspections (around 68%) were conducted by State feed safety officials, with the remainder conducted by FDA officials. Inspections conducted by FDA or State investigators are classified to reflect the compliance status at the time of the inspection based upon the objectionable conditions documented. These inspection conclusions are reported as Official Action Indicated (OAI), Voluntary Action Indicated (VAI), or No Action Indicated (NAI).

An OAI inspection classification occurs when significant objectionable conditions or practices were found and regulatory sanctions are warranted in order to address the establishment's lack of compliance with the regulation. An example of an OAI inspection classification would be findings of manufacturing procedures insufficient to ensure that ruminant feed is not contaminated with prohibited material. Inspections classified with OAI violations will be promptly re-inspected following the regulatory sanctions to determine whether adequate corrective actions have been implemented.

A VAI inspection classification occurs when objectionable conditions or practices were found that do not meet the threshold of regulatory significance, but do warrant advisory actions to inform the establishment of findings that should be voluntarily corrected. Inspections classified with VAI violations are more technical violations of the Ruminant Feed Ban. These include provisions such as minor recordkeeping lapses and conditions involving non-ruminant feeds.

An NAI inspection classification occurs when no objectionable conditions or practices were found during the inspection or the significance of the documented objectionable conditions found does not justify further actions.

The results to date are reported here both by “segment of industry” and “in total”. NOTE – A single firm can operate as more than one firm type. As a result, the categories of the different industry segments are not mutually exclusive.

RENDERERS

These firms are the first to handle and process (i.e., render) animal proteins and to send these processed materials to feed mills and/or protein blenders for use as a feed ingredient.

Number of active firms whose initial inspection has been reported to FDA – 269

Number of active firms handling materials prohibited from use in ruminant feed – 161 (60 % of those active firms inspected)

FDA licenses these feed mills to produce medicated feed products. The license is required to manufacture and distribute feed using certain potent drug products, usually those requiring some pre-slaughter withdrawal time. This licensing has nothing to do with handling prohibited materials under the feed ban regulation. A medicated feed license from FDA is not required to handle materials prohibited under the Ruminant Feed Ban.

Number of active firms whose initial inspection has been reported to FDA – 1,074

Number of active firms handling materials prohibited from use in ruminant feed – 444 (41 % of those active firms inspected)

Note that a single firm can be reported under more than one firm category; therefore, the summation of the individual OAI/VAI firm categories will be more than the actual total number of OAI/VAI firms, as presented below.

Number of active firms whose initial inspection has been reported to FDA – 19,705

Number of active firms handling materials prohibited from use in ruminant feed – 6,146 (31 % of those active firms inspected)

Date: March 21, 2007 at 2:27 pm PST RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINES -- CLASS II___________________________________PRODUCTBulk cattle feed made with recalled Darling’s 85% Blood Meal, Flash Dried, Recall # V-024-2007CODECattle feed delivered between 01/12/2007 and 01/26/2007RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURERPfeiffer, Arno, Inc, Greenbush, WI. by conversation on February 5, 2007. Firm initiated recall is ongoing.REASONBlood meal used to make cattle feed was recalled because it was cross-contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been manufactured on common equipment and labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE42,090 lbs. DISTRIBUTIONWI

> May 2007 Update on Feed Enforcement Activities to Limit the Spread of BSE

what about BASE ???

USA MAD COW STRAIN MORE VIRULENT TO HUMANS THAN UK STRAIN

18 January 2007 - Draft minutes of the SEAC 95 meeting (426 KB) held on 7December 2006 are now available.

snip...

64. A member noted that at the recent Neuroprion meeting, a study waspresented showing that in transgenic mice BSE passaged in sheep may be morevirulent and infectious to a wider range of species than bovine derived BSE.

Other work presented suggested that BSE and bovine amyloidotic spongiformencephalopathy (BASE) MAY BE RELATED. A mutation had been identified in theprion protein gene in an AMERICAN BASE CASE THAT WAS SIMILAR IN NATURE TO AMUTATION FOUND IN CASES OF SPORADIC CJD.

Bovine Amyloid Spongiform Encephalopathy (BASE) is an atypical BSE straindiscovered recently in Italy, and similar or different atypical BSE caseswere also reported in other countries. The infectivity and phenotypes ofthese atypical BSE strains in humans are unknown. In collaboration withPierluigi Gambetti, as well as Maria Caramelli and her co-workers, we haveinoculated transgenic mice expressing human prion protein with brainhomogenates from BASE or BSE infected cattle. Our data shows that about halfof the BASE-inoculated mice became infected with an average incubation timeof about 19 months; in contrast, none of the BSE-inoculated mice appear tobe infected after more than 2 years.

***These results indicate that BASE is transmissible to humans and suggest that BASE is more virulent thanclassical BSE in humans.***